1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to a mobile unitary highway chipper truck vehicle useful in all aspects of the green industry, including tree trimming and lawn care. More particularly, it relates to a unitized dump truck having a mounted chipper, a dump bed portion, ample storage compartments, and a hydraulic telescoping personnel lift with bucket, commonly referred to as a cherry picker. The mobile unitary highway chipper truck of the present invention may optionally be fitted with numerous other tree trimming and lawn care accessories.
2. Description of Related Art
The equipment presently used in the green industry including tree trimming and lawn care is limited in its utility by its overly cumbersome design, which severely limits its maneuverability and mobility. Generally, the most commonly used machinery consists of a large heavy-duty truck and a separately trailered chipper/shredder device. These units are inefficient and costly to maintain and operate. In addition, these units generally require more than one operator to be attendant at all times, which increases man hour costs.
Vehicles have been developed for the collection and processing of solid waste materials. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,395,061 and 5,427,271 to Merklinger disclose tire shredders. In particular, the Merklinger patents disclose a truck-mounted shredder that is fed from the side. The shredder is powered by a power takeoff. The tires are dumped into the shredder by means of a conveyor. Discharge from the shredder is dumped into a compactor. The compactor is actuated and the discharge is compacted by means of a screw conveyor into a storage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,539 to Deem discloses a truck mounted chipper for use in recycling wood pallets; a storage bin is trailered behind the mounted chipper device. The wood pallets are fed up the side over the top of the chipper by means of the conveyor belt. The chips are then blown into the trailered storage bin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,525 to Ferguson discloses a truck mounted tree shredder with a crane and a side feed mechanism. The shredder blows the chips into a large storage bag, which is resting on a flatbed truck chassis trailered behind the tree shredder. The storage bag on the chassis can be tilt dumped.
Unfortunately, all of these chipper/shredder units remain inefficient, cumbersome, and costly to maintain and operate. What is needed then is a compact apparatus having all the necessary tree and lawn care equipment in one unitary vehicle of such a size that it can travel off-road. Additionally, what is needed is a unitary vehicle that is less expensive to purchase, maintain and operate. In view of the prior art at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how the needed unitary highway chipper truck vehicle could be provided.
In accordance with the present invention, a mobile unitary highway chipper truck vehicle comprising a forwardly pivotable cab portion; an extended chassis; a compartment portion of a predetermined width, height, and length located behind the cab portion on the extended chassis is disclosed. The compartment portion is a space, which includes a working compartment portion and a storage compartment portion. The working compartment portion and the storage compartment portion are located adjacent to each other in either a side by side or back-to-back relationship. A chipping apparatus is housed in the working compartment portion of the compartment portion space. A frame structure is positioned over the compartment portion space and includes a platform. The platform is positioned above the working compartment and the storage compartment portions. A cherry picker is centrally positioned on the platform. Further, a backwardly pivotable dump bed portion is located behind the compartment portion space on the extended chassis. Alternatively, the cherry picker is positioned on the dump bed portion. The vehicle also includes means for discharging materials from the chipper apparatus into the backwardly pivotable dump bed portion. In addition, at least one storage box is located under the extended chassis of the present invention.
In an alternative embodiment, the present invention further includes a means for directionally discharging chipped wood materials from the backwardly pivotable dump bed portion of the unitary apparatus.
In another embodiment, the present invention further includes a means for directionally discharging materials directly from the chipper apparatus itself, thereby circumventing the backwardly pivotable dump bed portion of the present invention.
In yet another embodiment the present invention further includes a means for removing debris and discharging the debris into the backwardly pivotable dump bed portion.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination or elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.